Canucks make the playoffs? Let us count the ways

Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun03.18.2014

Well, we can all dream, can’t we? Winger Chris Higgins and these Vancouver Canucks fans would likely love to entertain post-season possibilities. The reality of the 2013-14 NHL season, however, is different.

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Their playoff hopes are beyond remote. They have 11 games remaining and will likely have to win them all to reach the post-season for a sixth straight season. Considering they haven't won two in a row since beating Calgary and Edmonton 20 games ago, it's hard to believe they will now rise up, overcome key injuries and reel off a string of victories against some formidable teams still on their schedule.

Of their final 11, the Canucks will face just four teams below the playoff bar, including Wednesday's home date against the Nashville Predators (7 p.m., Sportsnet Pacific, Team 1040). They have the lowly Buffalo Sabres on Sunday and then it's seven straight against playoff-bound squads, including two each against Anaheim and Colorado.

The picture is bleaker than a Prairie winter but remember this: as long as the Canucks aren't mathematically out, they're still mathematically in. They don't need a certain point total. All they need to do is catch both the Phoenix Coyotes – who hold down the eighth and final playoff spot – and the Dallas Stars. They will then have to stay ahead of them, all the while hoping the pursuing Winnipeg Jets and Predators don't decide to get hot themselves. Simple enough, eh?

There are scenarios that would see the Canucks sneak into the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. This may seem like fantasy, but if the sports world can have fantasy leagues, they can certainly have the odd fantasy playoff scenario. Or as Brian Burke once put it, albeit in another context: “It's another drug-induced media fantasy.”

Well, Brian, we don't need pharmaceuticals to dream up implausible playoff possibilities. They come naturally. We've had lots of practice over the years. This isn't the first rodeo for a Canucks team facing almost certain elimination from a playoff hunt. Remember those 15 straight seasons under .500?

• SCENARIO ONE:

The Canucks go 8-2-1, good enough 89 points while the Stars stumble to a 6-8-1 record and somehow lose all their games in hand on Vancouver. Meanwhile, the Coyotes, who are threatening to pull away, slip on a banana peel and lose at home Thursday to Roberto Luongo and the Florida Panthers. The Desert Dogs don't handle this adversity well and follow it up with losses to Boston, the Rangers and Pittsburgh. Coyotes netminder Mike Smith overhandles the puck at least once in each game and costs his team a key goal. By this time, the Canucks have knocked off the Preds and Sabres, pulled to within a point of the Coyotes, be filled with confidence and on their way.

• SCENARIO TWO:

The Canucks, winners of just three of their last 17 on the road (3-13-1), become road warriors again and prevail in their final three away games at Minnesota, Colorado and Edmonton. That takes cares of six points. At home, they go 5-1-2, losing once to Anaheim in regulation, once to Anaheim in overtime and once to Colorado in a shootout. The 18 points sees them wind up with 90 on the nose.

The Stars, who finish with eight games in 13 nights, roll over from exhaustion. They have to make up the Rich Peverley postponed game and it's jammed into an already busy week. So they'll play five in seven between April 5 and April 11. Five of their last eight are on the road and who among us can forget the famous line about Lindy Ruff-coached teams? “They're Ruff at home and Lindy on the road.” The Stars limp to the finish line with 87 points.

The Coyotes, meanwhile, won't build on Monday's come-from-behind regulation win over the L.A. Kings. In fact, they are so happy with themselves, they consider it the equivalent of Game 7 victory. Consequently, they go 5-7-1 down the stretch and wind up with 88 points. Good night, you Desert Dogs.

• SCENARIO THREE:

The Canucks do the unthinkable and win 11 straight, setting a new club record. (The previous mark of 10 was set by Marc Crawford's 2002-03 team that featured a line of Markus Naslund, Brendan Morrison and Todd Bertuzzi. It wound up with 104 points. But we digress.)

The Coyotes and Stars, stunned by this development, both stagger down the stretch at .500 and wind up with 90 points apiece, four behind the resurgent Canucks. The trailing Preds and Jets won't believe it either and never make a run of their own. All the teams, with the exception of the Canucks, will fire their coaches and the embattled John Tortorella will be mentioned for sainthood, and the Jack Adams Trophy. He won't win it but he will win a reprieve from the guillotine.

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